Gilberto Gil encourages independent production and intends to project Brazilian culture worldwide!

The doors of the Palais des Festivals opened to representatives of the record industry from around the world. More than 400 booths showcased international music production — with emphasis on independent, alternative production, the kind not linked to the five major multinational record companies (WEA, Sony, EMI, BMG and Universal).

Brazil is the featured country at Midem-2003. Banners spread throughout the exhibition pavilion announce: "Brazil makes sense". The fair's opening show, scheduled for the beginning of last night, would feature Brazilian musicians: guitarist Yamandú Costa, winner of the 2001 Visa MPB Prize, the body percussion group Barbatuques, the duo Veiga e Salazar, who perform contemporary pop, cavaquinho player Armandinho, guitarist Roberto Menescal, with singer Marcia Salomon, with a bossa nova program, plus the Bossacucanova project, a lounge vision of bossa — a contemporary trend widely accepted in Europe. Master of ceremonies was the composer from Bahia Tom Zé. A guest appearance — two or three numbers — by Brazilian Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil was planned.

It was the composer's first international commitment in his capacity as minister. Shortly after 11 a.m. yesterday, Gil took part in a press conference for the international media to talk about the record industry and Brazilian culture. He shared the table with other Brazilians — producer José Carlos Costa Netto, president of Brazil Music & Arts (BM&A), the company coordinating Brazil's participation in the fair; Bruno Boulet, from the French music promotion office in Brazil; and Eduardo Muskate, representing the Associação Brasileira de Música Independente (ABMI).

Gilberto Gil had a full schedule for yesterday. His agenda included meetings with the French Minister of Culture (and with former minister Jacques Lang) and with other authorities in the field from European countries. Next week, the minister heads to the international forum in Davos.

A musician known worldwide, Gil was the central figure at the press conference. Wearing a suit and Rastafarian hair, the minister began by answering what his first measures would be to encourage Brazilian culture and project music internationally. He began answering in Portuguese. "For the first time, Brazil is inserted into the general plan of Midem and, more importantly, represented by independent production," he said. "Being represented by independent production is important because, as in other fields, there was an industrialization of music."

Gil continued: "But we cannot see music only from the economic aspect. It is necessary to look at mass culture in its social, cultural, symbolic dimensions. One cannot ignore the importance of the market, but it is necessary to establish a dialogue of the market with the other dimensions that culture conveys." Bruno Boulez added: "Brazilian authors are an inspiration for those in the rest of the world, and today a large part of the best musicians and performers are not part of the roster of the major record labels. Presence at Midem, which agents and producers from around the world attend, is the chance to promote these names internationally." In the last ten years, as producer, entrepreneur and composer José Carlos Costa Netto recalled, independent production experienced extraordinary growth; today, according to him, there are about 400 record labels not linked to the five multinational majors.

"These companies often emerged through the initiative of the composers, musicians and performers themselves, dissatisfied with the way the industry was dealing with them," Costa Netto recounted. The movement gave rise to ABMI, which represents these alternative labels, and also to BM&A, whose purpose is to promote the international dissemination of these labels and artists.

Gilberto Gil had been to Midem twice before, as an artist contracted by major record labels. He does not condemn them. "The industry is important. Diversity is the name of the dream." He explains: "Globalization caused the standardization of music, food, other items. The great challenge is to promote the inclusion of diversity, of what is not standard, and the equalization of global production and regional expressions." A follower of the macrobiotic diet, he took advantage of a metaphor used earlier by Eduardo Muskate (companies manufacture fast food and fast music, and we need organic music and food) to create his own metaphor: "When, 30 years ago, I adopted the organic diet, that was seen as exoticism; today, natural, healthy food is part of the structure of the business world." They asked him what his ministry could do to bring culture to the favelas. Gil said that favelas express themselves in their own way — using tradition, samba, forró, or international trends, funk, hip-hop, and the issue is not only about bringing culture to the favela but also about showing those who are not from the favela the cultural production of the favela.

Once again, the question of local and global productions. He denied that Brazilian music is absent from the radio. "In some cases, radio programming reaches 80% Brazilian music, contrary to what it was 20 years ago," he said. He did not consider quality, but production. He understands that when Brazilian composers begin to make "brazilian funk, brazilian rock, brazilian jazz or reggae" they are creating a kind of "international national music" — national music, in any case.

He admitted that the work at the ministry will be "hard." "It is a small structure, which needs to be expanded, resized, needs to gain a body and have effective presence in the set of Ministries," he said. He announced that he intends to create a special secretariat for music, another for museums and still others. "Music is a heritage. Unesco has already listed Brazilian architectural complexes; it is necessary that the same importance be recognized in music." He stated that international help is necessary, of technology, for example, to help production, and said that Brazilian authors are rescuing their roots but produce "anchored in the future" — at a political moment that for him is special in which it is possible to dream of a future.

His career, he accepted, will suffer from the choice to accept the Ministry of Culture. "Part of it will be interrupted. But it was a commitment I assumed with president Lula, a way of helping him in the Brazil project." His activity will center on strengthening public policies for culture. And as for performing shows, he says that is something to be discussed in the future. "Perhaps later I may be able to reconcile my political activity with that of an artist. I need to think about the ethical issues involved."

But he ended by recounting that he was invited by the Argentine Minister of Culture to visit the country, on a protocol visit, and that, in parallel to such protocol activity, he may perform a show.